Many months have passed since everything happened. And it all seemed to pass by so fast, as if it were the wind passing by, never to come back. It brushed against his skin and then left as fast as it came. Really, he should start treating time better; he was going to be sixteen soon, if this continued.

Which would mark his seventh year away from home.

‘Seven… whole years.’ It was… scary to think of it, after all, it felt like yesterday he had gotten trapped in the Withered, and yet, at the same time, the effects of being gone for so long were present.

He didn’t remember his father’s face all that well anymore.

After all, he had seen a lot of faces in these last years.

And yet… a part of him knew that another few years were going to have to pass before he could ever think of going back, really, he had spent all this time to and he wasn’t even a Seeker.

…

And he didn’t want to return home as a Seeker.

It would be disappointing for a prince to disappear for this long and only rank up in class once.

…

Plus, he had a feeling that they had already forgotten about him.

After all, they had a war on their hands; they had to take care of that.

…

Aether clenched Voidpiercer’s hilt as he thrust into the middle of the torso of the dummy; his feelings were evident in the thrust, even if he had tried to keep it from happening, it was easier said than done.

As the thrust hit, Voidpiercer completely blew right through the dummy, creating a deep hole in his chest.

…

Looking at the destroyed dummy, Aether sighed, slowly turning his face to look at the rest, looking at the sea of destroyed dummies. It was impressive how he destroyed every single one of the dummies, when their number was so large that hundreds of warriors, heck, even more, could train at the same time.

But I guess he had spent a lot of time in this place, so it was bound to happen someday.

And yet if you were to take a second to look at the training ground, you would see… that it was strangely empty. He was the only one standing in it, the only warrior who had decided to stay in this cursed and abandoned place

It was… a long story.

After what happened that day, everything got quiet, as if everyone knew the truth, but didn’t want to speak about it, preferring to completely forget about it and the arena with it. And with time, fewer and fewer people began to start coming to the arena, their reason, of course, was justified, they didn’t want to watch some clones battle, there was no real danger in it. The danger they paid to come in the first place. The Arena started to make less and less money.

Plus, important nobles and even the royal family had badmouthed the arena, bringing a bad reputation to it, and digging it a deeper hole to sleep in. It was a lost cause; everyone knew that, so they slowly left it in the past.

Truly, how much can change in a few months.

He remembered that on his last fight, there had only been ten people watching. Maybe less, and after that fight, the number fell to zero, since… the one he had killed in that fight had been the other warrior who had preferred to stay.

All the others left, without Arena making the money to pay the fighters who reached the Named rank, Will-less began to stop risking their life for the arena, and with fewer and fewer people coming, they had fewer matches to try and save the place.

So the owner abandoned it, and people completely stopped.

Only a few remained, those who had gotten too used to life in this place, or those who knew that their life wouldn’t be better outside either way, and preferred to stay here, in a place where they had a shelter.

Yet, some went insane; there had even been some who had decided to take their own lives, adding to the deaths of those who died in battle.

The only one that remained was him.

…

The Crimson Ledge was found guilty, with all its members being executed right in front of everyone to see. He didn’t know if the King wanted to prove something with it, if it was a message, but it felt good to see the Crimson Ledger finally die.

The other factions were able to live, since there wasn’t evidence that they knew about the fact that they were buying and using cloned fighters.

But even then, the damage was still there, and people would remember them as horrible people either way, so while their fate was better, it was in no way a good ending for them.

No one in the arena had found a good ending.

Not even himself.

…

He had decided to stay in this place because it still had a training ground and a few people to fight, and with him still not feeling as if he had mastered the style, it was inevitable that he would stay.

After he had killed the other in the last fight, a part of him did want to leave. After all, what reason did he have to stay, and yet, a part of him knew that he could still train inside the training ground.

And that was what he did.

…

And today, he had lost even the only thing that still kept him in this place.

The dummies were all destroyed, and the other training exercises were also destroyed, alongside every single wooden blade inside the arena, even other weapons, since he had decided to try and train with them.

There was truly nothing else to do in this place.

…

…

And yet, he still felt incomplete.

As if he had not achieved his goal, he didn’t know why he felt like this, hollow.

He had learned a lot; he knew everything he needed.

He had created many techniques, he had learned to use his instinct to fight, and had a deep understanding of the freedom the whole style was founded around; he knew when to use the blade, and when to use his body. How to trick others, and many more.

He also never forgot what Kael had said, that combat revolved around survival.

And yet… even now, he felt as if he was missing something.

But what?

…

…

Aether stopped, taking a deep breath, as the sun slowly blinded him… he stood at the entrance of the arena, hidden in the shadows, yet at the edge of the tunnel, one step could take him out of the Arena completely after so much time.

It felt weird seeing the real world, after this long of being used to seeing the same rooms over and over again, living inside the same cage for all day long, and looking at the same sky, seeing a world beyond that was truly fascinating…

Yet… it had taken a lot out of him to make the first step.

It is always the hardest.

As the second and third, and beyond that, were a lot easier.

Only after walking a good distance did he stop to look behind him.

The arena rose from the earth like something that had always been there, pale stone stacked in perfect symmetry, each block massive enough to suggest monsters had once hauled them into place. Arches wrapped around it in layered rows, hollow and dark, like empty eyes that had forgotten how to blink.

But time had not spared it.

Cracks split through the stone, running like veins across its surface. Entire sections of the upper tiers had collapsed inward, leaving jagged gaps where seats once overflowed with shouting spectators. The banners that had once bled crimson and gold now hung in charred strips, their symbols burned away or torn loose, snapping weakly in the wind like the last breaths of something already dead.

The statues at the entrance still stood, barely.

The fighter with the broken spear had lost his head. It lay shattered at the base, features eroded beyond recognition. The one with the split shield had an arm missing, the granite limb reduced to rubble scattered across the steps. They no longer looked victorious. They looked abandoned.

‘I guess this really is it.’ He said, with soft eyes, while staring at the colossus, he knew this might be the last time he ever saw it. So he wanted to say a proper goodbye to the place that he had spent many months in, training.

To continue on his journey of finding that missing piece he needed to learn the style, he was going to go back to Kael, to ask him for some tips, maybe he can help him figure it out

…

And after that. He had something very important to do.

…

…

His eyes turned serious, as he glanced at the bracelets on his wrist.

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